Hand milking and Udder-growth. 19 



to the first use of milk, in considerable quantities, by man ; 

 and this probably transpired in different localities and 

 countries — as also happens in the use of oxen for labor — 

 that led to familiarity with cow kine ; and so milking 

 cows in time became customary. It is also probable that 

 sheep* and goats were hand-milked at an earlier period 

 than cows, and that the use of the milk from the smaller, 

 may have suggested its use from these larger animals. A 

 thing so hidden by the lapse of time as the origin of hand- 

 milking can never be accurately traced back to its begin- 

 nings. But it is certain that the hands of men or women 

 became dextrous by practice, and that when it was seen 

 that cows gave greater yields of milk, it naturally came to 

 pass that the larger animals usually superseded the smaller 

 in yielding tribute to satisfy the human appetite, so per- 

 fecting the art of its procurement. 



Accidental stanking of the udder, as when the fatted 

 calf was killed, may have suggested the relieving of cows' 

 udders from humane motive's. We can only conjecture as 

 to motives or dates in this matter ; but it is probable that 

 tasting followed the drawing of milk, and^as of the origin 

 of roasting suckling pigs, from tasting one that was acci- 

 dentally scorched to crackling — milking, and the use of 

 milk extended so far, and the practice spread so widely, 

 and in so many countries, that there is not now the remot- 

 est probability of hand-milking becoming one of the lost 

 arts. In fact, the very largely increased use of milk prod- 

 ucts, during the last twenty years, has led to an immense 

 increase in dairying, and in the art of milking by hand; 

 and if at first this appear trite or unimportant, the reverse 

 Avill appear as we proceed ; for : 



■■'= Since wriiinf; the above we find thai sheep are now hand-milkecion a large 

 scale at Rochcfort, France, where the hlne-tinged llochefort cheese is made. 

 In the manufacture of this sheep-milk cheese, 300 women, besides nuinbcrs 

 of men, are employed, the curing of the cheese occupying thirteen eslahlish- 

 ments in thirteen dilTerent caves, all containing damp air, the caves containing 

 springs of water, which keep the air moist. 



